Chapter 296 - 281: Level 5 Talent

Chapter 296: Chapter 281: Level 5 Talent

’It’s a shame I can’t just spend points to raise my Beast Tamer level. Otherwise, with this much Beast Taming Reputation, I’d have enough to level up.’

’Still, it’s a waste to let all this Reputation sit around doing nothing.’

’In that case, I’ll level up the Learning talent to LV5!’

What Jiang Zuo wanted most right now was to raise his Beast Tamer level even higher.

Jiang Zuo had originally thought that after he started Cultivation, he would be able to break through his attribute limits.

But in reality, all of Jiang Zuo’s attributes were still at 999.

For a long time now, even though he was continuously raising Pet Beasts, his attributes had not changed at all.

Even his hidden attributes had hit a limit and stopped increasing.

Jiang Zuo now had a theory.

He might need to raise his Beast Tamer level higher before his attribute cap would be unlocked.

But if he continued to raise his Beast Tamer level and the attribute cap still didn’t change,

then Jiang Zuo would have no choice but to suspect another possibility.

So far, Jiang Zuo had encountered one situation where the Beast Taming System was ineffective.

Back on the Nameless Island of the human race, the Turtle Shell with the lingering obsession had been related to the Forbidden Words, and the Beast Taming System had offered no prompts about it at all.

And the Forbidden Words were related to the Celestial Dao Rules of this world.

In other words, if his attribute cap remained locked even after he upgraded the Beast Taming System to a higher level, it might be because the Celestial Dao Rules of this world were restricting it.

Unfortunately, the Beast Tamer level could only gain experience by raising Pet Beasts; no amount of Beast Taming Reputation could be converted into experience.

Jiang Zuo could only settle for the next best thing and level up his Learning talent to LV5.

Right now, the limiting factor in Jiang Zuo’s Pet Beast cultivation was the beasts’ ability to learn skills.

Upgrading from LV4 to LV5 required a full 500,000 experience points. He imagined the talent would see a significant boost after the upgrade.

The Learning talent currently had just over 80,000 experience points, so he needed nearly 420,000 Beast Taming Reputation.

With a single thought, Jiang Zuo created his first LV5 talent!

『"Learning" talent upgraded to LV5!』

『Cultivation Beast Cage limit +1!』

—Learning LV5 (0/5,000,000): Universal Talent. The Pet Beast’s learning ability is greatly enhanced. A portion of the knowledge learned will be etched into its genes and passed on to its offspring. When the offspring learn the same knowledge, they will experience a sense of déjà vu, making it easier for them to master it.

HOLY SHIT!

This level-up was well worth the huge amount of Reputation he spent!

Never mind the effect of the Learning talent—the number of Cultivation Beast Cages had actually increased by one!

This single additional Cultivation Beast Cage slot increased his cultivation speed by 25%!

And the improvement to the Learning talent’s effect was also incredibly powerful.

Not only was the beast’s own learning ability greatly enhanced, but even its offspring would benefit.

Of course, he would have to test it to know the specific effects.

Jiang Zuo immediately applied the LV5 Learning talent to the four Star Dust Birds he was raising.

This generation was already mostly raised, so the full effects wouldn’t be clear until the next one.

Soon, a year passed.

’Hot damn, even for offspring without the genetic inheritance, the cultivation time was still cut by almost half!’

’With the greatly enhanced learning ability, it now only takes a little over six months to raise a Star Dust Bird!’

’If I raise the offspring they give birth to, the time could be shortened even more.’

Seeing the actual effects of Learning LV5, Jiang Zuo exclaimed that the Beast Taming Reputation had been well spent.

With this, plus the additional Cultivation Beast Cage slot, his cultivation efficiency had more than doubled.

’LV5 isn’t the limit. It can still be upgraded to LV6.’

’But five million experience points to upgrade... that’s terrifying.’

Jiang Zuo shook his head slightly as he gazed at the long string of numbers.

Even if he could maintain a rate of earning 30,000 Beast Taming Reputation per year, it would still take him nearly 170 years to accumulate enough.

However, Jiang Zuo did a quick calculation and realized that the experience required to upgrade the Beast Taming System was even more frightening.

The Beast Taming Experience gained from raising a Tier 1 Spirit Beast was actually about the same as for an ordinary Mortal Beast.

But for raising a Tier 2 Spirit Beast, the Beast Taming Experience would soar to 50 points per beast.

Thanks to the Super Reproduction Tower, the offspring of the Star Dust Birds were now born as Tier 2 Spirit Beasts.

Even so, Jiang Zuo could only raise ten Star Dust Birds in a year, gaining 500 Beast Taming Experience.

His Beast Tamer level still needed over 410,000 more experience to level up, which would take more than 800 years.

’But these are just temporary numbers.’

’If I can raise Spirit Beasts that are born at Tier 3, the experience I gain will increase dramatically!’

Jiang Zuo thought.

But Spirit Beasts that were born at Tier 3 were not easy to find.

Even with the Super Reproduction Tower, you would need at least a Tier 4 Spirit Beast with an excellent bloodline for its offspring to have a chance of being born at Tier 3.

’But on second thought, it’s not a huge problem.’

’Over time, the bloodlines of the Spirit Beasts in my Spirit Garden will get better and better, and their Cultivation levels will get higher and higher.’

’Producing Tier 3 Spirit Beast young is just a matter of time.’

Jiang Zuo thought optimistically.

He didn’t dwell on it for too long and went back to the busy work of making money.

Another year passed.

In the blink of an eye, the tenth annual Spirit Beast tournament had determined its top three winners.

And just one week later, it was time for the first-ever Champion’s Tournament.

Over ten years, there were a total of thirty qualified contestants.

Because some people couldn’t make it due to other commitments, the final number of participating Cultivators was twenty-seven.

Compared to the annual tournament, the Champion’s Tournament was undoubtedly more captivating.

The contestants were all top-three finishers from previous years, and the prize money was as high as one million Spirit Stones.

Furthermore, all the competing beasts were Tier 4 Spirit Beasts, many of which were rarely seen, which greatly intrigued many Cultivators.

The competition lasted for three days, and from the very first day, the area around the Martial Arts Arena was more bustling than ever before.

Some Cultivators of distinguished status also watched the fierce Spirit Beast battles in the Martial Arts Arena from high up in the pavilions.

"Interesting. I hear you were the one who persuaded that Gu Changqing to fund this tournament?"

"Two million Spirit Stones over ten years, for no return. I didn’t expect you to have that kind of skill."

In one of the pavilions, a slightly portly old man looked at Min Rulin, who stood beside him, and spoke indifferently.

"Elder You, it was merely a fortunate coincidence. It’s mainly because Master Gu had the idea of giving back to the Immortal City. If not for that, this humble one would not have had the ability to persuade him to part with such a large sum of money."

Min Rulin replied flawlessly.

Yunyuan Immortal City was actually controlled by several sects, and these sects would send a new elder to preside over the city every few decades.

Within the Immortal City, five Dao Fruit Realm Cultivators were permanently stationed.

Behind them were the Manifestation Realm Venerables of their respective sects.

If not for this, Yunyuan Immortal City could not have maintained peace for thousands, or even tens of thousands, of years.

The old man before him was named You Changheng, an elder of the Ten Thousand Beasts Sect.

You Changheng had only arrived to preside over the Immortal City a few years ago. Min Rulin was not familiar with him and didn’t know the meaning behind his words, so his reply was naturally very cautious.

"Give back to the Immortal City?"

"Heh heh, a nice way of putting it."

"Do you know this person’s background?"

You Changheng sneered, then asked.

"The Immortal City has never inquired about origins, but as far as I know, Master Gu only suddenly emerged in the Cultivation Realm twelve years ago. Before that, there are no records of him."

"And according to Master Gu himself, he comes from a Hidden Cultivation Clan. He studied one of his clan’s legacies and was only allowed to leave the clan to gain experience after his Cultivation reached the Three Flowers Realm."

"But as for which specific clan, Master Gu says his clan forbids its name from being spread to avoid attracting disaster."

"In my opinion, Master Gu’s actions are likely also to fulfill his clan’s training requirements."

Min Rulin reported truthfully.

This was, of course, a background fabricated by Jiang Zuo, but it just so happened to be a very good explanation for why he would spend a fortune to hold the Spirit Beast tournament every year.

"A Hidden Clan... No wonder someone with such world-shocking talent wasn’t recruited by any sect."

"Have you noticed if he has had any secret contact with the winners after holding these competitions?"

You Changheng thought for a moment, then asked again.

"None in the open. As for what happens in private, this humble one cannot guarantee."

Min Rulin said quickly.

Cultivators had numerous private means of communication; if they wanted to hide something from others, there was simply no way for anyone to find out.

...

Three days passed quickly.

First place in the Champion’s Tournament was ultimately taken by a Vajra Giant Ape.

Not only was this Vajra Giant Ape immensely powerful, but its defensive capabilities were also astonishing.

It didn’t have many Magic-based attacks, but it had mastered a type of Roar.

A single Roar could cause other Spirit Beasts to be momentarily dazed.

If they were flying, they might even fall from the sky.

It could withstand several attacks from other Spirit Beasts, while other Spirit Beasts could hardly withstand a single one of its attacks.

So, it wasn’t too surprising that the Vajra Giant Ape won the championship.

Finally, under the watchful eyes of tens of thousands of Cultivators, Jiang Zuo went on stage with Great Black and awarded the one million Spirit Stone prize to the Vajra Giant Ape’s master.

Moreover, Jiang Zuo was being sly; instead of using a storage bag, he took out all the Spirit Stones, loaded them into a Great Tripod, and brought it onto the martial arts stage.

Among the tens of thousands of Cultivators, not many had ever seen a million Spirit Stones.

A million Spirit Stones piled together was an incredibly impactful sight.

Amid waves of gasps filled with envy and jealousy, Jiang Zuo also gained a large amount of Beast Taming Reputation.

In just three short days, he had gained over 50,000 Beast Taming Reputation.

For a time, the Champion’s Tournament and Jiang Zuo, its organizer, became the talk of the town both inside and outside the Immortal City.

Not long after the Champion’s Tournament concluded, the next major event was the grand, once-a-decade auction held by the three major auction houses.

Normally, the three major auction houses tried to space out their smaller auctions.

But for the grand decennial auction, the three major auction houses held them at nearly the same time.

Starting next week, the Wanbao Auction House, Linlang Auction House, and Dragon and Phoenix Auction House would each hold a grand auction, one week apart.

As early as six months ago, the three major auction houses had begun promoting the rare treasures that would be featured in this auction.

Ten years ago, Jiang Zuo had participated in one of the three houses’ grand auctions.

As for the smaller auctions, he participated in them every year.

This time, for the auctions at the Wanbao and Linlang Auction Houses, Jiang Zuo was just going to show his face and broaden his horizons.

He wasn’t particularly interested in the items up for auction, however.

But for this auction at the Dragon and Phoenix Auction House, Jiang Zuo had brought his entire fortune.

According to what he knew, this time, the Dragon and Phoenix Auction House would be auctioning a Tier 5 Spirit Fire!